Failure of Foreign AidBy Jonathan Kessy

These are relatively current pictures taken from locations in countries that have been recipients of foreign aid. These nations have for years received the aid in order to alleviate the same conditions that are evident in these pictures. In these countries, this is the current living condition for most the natives in rural areas outside of the city. Those who live in these rural areas are usually the ones that add up to the statistics of epidemics such as diseases, hunger, droughts, civil war conflicts and other causes that usually draw the United States attention and are used as an excuse to pour large amounts of money into these areas and their governments. If it is the case that pouring large amounts of money into these areas ends poverty, then scenes such as these should not be present.

this is what the average victim of foreign aid looks like. This child's living conditions are the result of a poor government enabled by foreign aid.

The images in this grid show an actual example of how foreign aid creates inequality between the leaders of a nation and its rural native population. The first image in this grid is that of the Somali’s foreign minister of commonwealth in a meeting with a government official from a country that most likely funds the Somalian government. The minister is living comfortably in contrast to the image of the Somalian girl who is living in absolute poverty. The presidential palace, like most African presidential houses, is a lavishly built estate while the rural locals are living in huts that can barely keep them warm.

Foreign Aid is also sent in the form of military assistance by the United States government in training foreign governments on war tactics and improving their military. This is an even worse form of foreign aid because it empowers corrupt leaders and enables them to commit horrendous acts of human rights violations on their own people

The last pictures include a statue of Mobutu the corrupt president of Zaire, Robert Mugabe a dictator and the protesters who were against Mugabe for his crimes. The first picture, is the president of Zaire who managed to amass a fortune of more than ten billion dollars from foreign aid money. He is a clear example of the type of leaders receiving foreign aid and the type of leaders who are in power for the sake of gaining a fortune. The United States played a huge role in enabling Mobutu because it supported him during the cold war to make sure that Russian communist influence would not infiltrate the country.